Is it true?

[MixOp]

A friend of mine told me a story in which I have a difficult time to believe in. He says that a peace officer can not issue a citation for a traffic violation unless he knows exactly who was driving the car. The story goes something like this: Two lawyers drove by a CHP cruiser at a high rate of speed. The CHP officer noticed the vehicle and initiated a pursued. The driver observed the CHP following them at a far distance and immediately took the next freeway exit. They exited the freeway, drove in to the nearest gas station, and both exited a vehicle. When the CHP unit rolled up to the gas station, two layers were already out of the car so the officer did not see who was driving the car. He approached both guys and asked them who was driving before asking anything else. They asked why he needed to know. The officer said that he clocked the vehicle at a high rate of speed. Both guys said none of them were driving. The conversation went on and on and none of the lawyers admitted driving the car. At the end, the frustrated officer could not give tickets to both of them so he just left.

The first thing I said to my friend was: the officer should have asked for the car's key and see who would hand it to him. The one who has the key is the driver. Then I said check DLs and Registration, whoever owns the car is the driver; but then it might not be the case. My friend said that he didn?t know all the details; all he knew was that the officer left unable to give the ticket.

Is it true that in situations like this one officers are unable to issue citations?

[dbcomm]

Not an officer, but I think I would have ticketed the owner of the vehicle. If he wanted to take the fall for his buddy (if he really wasn't driving) so be it.

[retchp]

Technically if you cannot ID the driver then you cannot arrest or cite. If you can make an ID through gathering information you may have a complaint filed through the DA's office. In this case (if it really happened) the officer should have just motored on if he could not ID the driver before they exited the car.
That being said, I have done the following:
1. Arrested a driver for dui who was walking a half mile away from his vehicle abandoned broken down on the freeway. Keys in pocket, seat position fits height, owner of vehicle, no one else around, vehicle engine warm, remote area. Guilty!
2. Asked two guys in a restaurant whose corvette I had just chased at 120 mph who was driving. One admitted it and I cited him. He could have gotten off in court but did not go to court. Guilty..but not recommended.
3. Had a guy bring his passenger to court on a dui. At trial before a judge the passenger said he was driving not the guy behind the wheel and they switched drivers as they stopped. Since I had no chem test on the passenger (althogh he was obviously drunk too) he felt that the case should be thrown out. The judge found both drivers guilty of dui.
4. Stopped two motorcycles I had chased up a dead end road. Both were off their bikes and both denied riding or taking the dead end road to avoid me. I cited both. The Sgt. (who was an idiot) had me void the citations. I believe a judge would have found them each guilty.